Odeon Mile End

401 Mile End Road,
London, E3 4PB

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Additional Info

Previously operated by: Odeon Theatres Ltd., Rank Organisation

Architects: Andrew Mather, Keith P. Roberts

Styles: Art Deco

Previous Names: Odeon Theatre, Sundown, Liberty Cinema

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Odeon Mile End

Situated across the road from Mile End Underground (Tube) Station in the East End of London. The Odeon Theatre was built for Oscar Deutsch’s original Odeon Theatres chain. It was designed by the Andrew Mather firm, with Keith P. Roberts credited as assistant. It had a distinctive ‘Odeon’ style with a tower feature and the exterior clad in cream faiance tiles. The interior was streamlined Art Deco style that had a feature of large decorative painted floral panels on the side walls close to the proscenium.

It opened on 17th October 1938 with Max Miller in “Thank Evans”. The auditorium was extensively ‘modernised’, re-opening on 27th December 1968 with “The Sound of Music”. However this did not stop the slow decline in admission in what was such a large suburban cinema and it closed on 17th June 1972 with Alain Delon in “The Red Circle (Le Cercle Rouge)” and Jane Fonda in “Cat Ballou”.

It was converted into a Sundown concert centre/danchall which opened on 8th September 1972 with a concert by pop group Slade. The Sundown venture was a failure and it closed in January 1973. After laying empty for two years, it became a cinema again from March 1975, known as the Liberty screening Asian/Bollywood films and it finally closed in 1978.

After standing empty for a further six years it was demolished in April/May 1984 and a combined office/residential block was built on the site.

Contributed by KenRoe

Recent comments (view all 4 comments)

Ken Roe
Ken Roe on September 19, 2005 at 1:36 am

An exterior photograph of the Odeon Mile End in 1949 here:
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Another vintage exterior photo taken in 1952 here:
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The exterior in 1957 here:
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3 views from 1960 here:

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A 1971 exterior view here:
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seymourcox
seymourcox on July 31, 2009 at 12:38 pm

LIFE photo of Odeon sign,
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Ken Roe
Ken Roe on July 31, 2009 at 1:12 pm

Great 1949 photo of Piccadilly Circus in London’s West End. The sign is pointing towards the Odeon Leicester Square, so not really the Odeon Mile End. Thanks for posting it though.

Ken Roe
Ken Roe on March 26, 2010 at 7:57 am

A set of vintage photographs of the Odeon Mile End:
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